Brooks

This court granted Virginia Brooks’s petition for writ of review from the decision of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) to examine whether a year of industrial disability leave (IDL) payable to state employees under Government Code sections 19869-19877.1 falls within the ambit of the two-year limitation on aggregate temporary disability payments in Labor Code section 4656, subdivision (c)(1), enacted as part of the 2004 workers’ compensation reforms. (Sen. Bill No. 899 (2003-2004 Reg. Sess.), chaptered as Stats. 2004, ch. 34, § 29.) We agree with the WCAB and conclude that under the current statutory scheme state employees are limited to a maximum of two years of combined temporary disability indemnity.

BACKGROUND

The parties have stipulated to the relevant facts. On October 25, 2004, Virginia Brooks sustained an injury to her right shoulder and psyche arising out of and in the course of her employment as a correctional officer with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). As a state agency, the CDCR was legally uninsured for workers’ compensation and contracted with the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) to adjust its workers’…